


Wednesdays

by ClassicalLeo



Category: Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho | The Way He Looks (2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-06 03:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4207089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClassicalLeo/pseuds/ClassicalLeo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo's grandma knows what's up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I liked Gabriel from the first minute I met him, and I knew he was special to Leo. I couldn’t put my finger on it but he was different from Giovana. Something in the way he asked questions about Leo, how he wanted to look at pictures and ask details about how he was as a child. If he had nowhere to be, he would have talked about Leo all night. It was endearing.

I didn’t know when I told him, “Come back any time,” he would, but he did. Like clockwork, he’s back every Wednesday, Leo riding behind him on the spokes of his bike.

 

************

The next Wednesday when they came back, Gabriel has a cold. His nose is runny, and he’s sniffling. “Isn’t that the cold Leo had last week?” I ask.

“Maybe,” Leo says, smiling, and I start to wonder if there’s something else to that.

It’s rainy outside. Sometimes the boys opt to go riding on Gabriel’s bike, but a downpour has put a halt on their plans. “Hey Grandma,” Leo says from the couch. “Can we use the record player?”

Gabriel looks interested. “You have one?” he asks me.

“Yes,” I tell them. “And of course.” I motion to it against the wall in the dining room. 

Leo walks over with Gabriel, opening the top, to reveal the record player. “Cool,” Gabriel says, thumbing through the classical albums I’ve collected over the years.

He hands one to Leo. “Which one is this?” he asks.

“You’ll find out,” Gabriel says. He’s fascinated by the way the record player works, and how Leo knows where everything is, because he’s used it hundreds of times. 

“Gabriel, can I make you a tea?” I ask him.

“Yes, please,” he says. 

By the time Gabriel’s tea is finished steeping, the boys have made their way back to the couch. They’re sitting so close, their thighs are touching, and they’re discussing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons recording.

They think I don’t notice, but their pinkies are intertwined.

 

**********************

 

Last week the boys had an idea to make a cake for my husband’s birthday--Leo’s grandfather. “He likes vanilla,” Leo says. 

“I have a recipe in the other room,” I tell them. “Gabriel, do you cook?”

“Yes,” he says. “I cook for my father all the time.

They go to the kitchen and Leo helps Gabriel find the measuring cups, bowls and ingredients. I go back in the living room to go through my mail for the day, and pay some bills. 

A few minutes later, I check on them from the hallway.

“Close your eyes, Leo.”

“Why?”

“You have flour on your face, I want to blow it off.”

“It’s not like I’ll go blind, Gabriel,” Leo says, sarcastically.

“It will still irritate your eyes. Do it.”

Leo closes his eyes, and Gabriel blows the flour from the bridge of Leo’s nose and his cheeks.

“Better?” Leo asks. It’s almost sarcastic.

“Yes, thank you,” Gabriel says politely, mixing the batter in the bowl.

 

At dinner, my husband insists that his birthday cake is the best cake I’ve ever made. 

“I didn’t make it,” I admit. “Leo and Gabriel made it.”

“Have them make it more often,” he insists. Gabriel and Leo smile from across the table, and I’m trying not to notice that Gabriel’s left hand and Leo’s right have disappeared under the table. 

 

After dinner, Gabriel insists that he and Leo do the dishes after dinner. It’s a good change, because usually Leo just listens to music or talks to Giovana. Gabriel runs water and soap into the sink and tells Leo he can rinse and dry the dishes.

“I’ll get this one, babe, it’s sharp,” Gabriel says, holding the knife at the handle.

“Did you just call me babe, Gabriel?”

“Is that OK?”

I see Leo smile at him. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

***********

When I come home from my eye doctor appointment, I see something I never expected. Leo is laying on the couch, with his head on a pillow on Gabriel’s lap. Gabriel’s neck is crooked back against the back of the cushion, sound asleep also.One of Gabriel’s hands is holding one of Leo’s hands, and his hand is in his hair, like they both fell asleep while he was rubbing Leo’s hair.

I know what love looks like, and this is it.


	2. Wednesdays II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo's grandma knows what's up.

Gabriel shakes himself awake when he feels me putting his legs up on the coffee table to make him more comfortable. “Whaaa?” he startles.

“Sssh,” I whisper. “It’s OK. Just don’t wake Leo up.”

They resume their normal positions, Gabriel hasn’t moved his hands from Leo’s hands and hair, and my cell phone rings. I walk out through the sliding back door through the kitchen.

“Hi, Laura,” I say.

“Mom? Where’s Leo? He’s not answering.”

“He’s on my couch…sleeping.”

“Don’t you think he and Gabriel are spending a lot of time together?” Laura quizzes me. 

“I think that’s normal,” I answer her. I’m trying to avoid the question, but I can’t steer away from it forever. And I’m her mother. It might be the best buffer for me to help Leo. “They’re in love, Laura.”

“He’s with Gabriel?” Laura asks. “And gay?”

“He didn’t choose being gay any more than he did being blind.”

“But he’s only 17!” Laura screams at me.

“You were the same age when you met Leo’s father, Laura.”

She sighs. “I guess so, I just thought this would happen so much later, and maybe with Giovana.”

“Giovana is his best friend,” I explain. “He doesn’t love her that way. He won’t love her that way,”

“I guess,” she says. “Well, send him home when he wakes up.”

“Bye, Laura. Kisses.”

“Kisses, mom.”

I walk back into the living room, where Leo has awoken, and is talking quietly with Gabriel. His head is still in Gabriel’s lap, but they’re no longer holding hands. “Leo, your mom expects you home soon.”

“Is she upset?”

I try to hold back a laugh–Laura has always been moderately high strung about things, even since she was a little girl. “She’s OK,” I tell him. “She just has a hard time dealing with things sometimes.”

“That’s an understatement,” he says as he and Gabriel begin putting on their shoes.

******

Gabriel is thumbing through a photo album, one of the last he hasn’t looked at. He’s holding hands with Leo on the couch. “Is this Giovana?” he asks as I pass by.

I look at the indicated picture. His pointer finger is on a little girl with ponytails in a pink gingham dress next to Leo at the kitchen table. “Yes,” I say, “That’s for his 5th birthday. “

He laughs at the picture next to it. All you can see of Giovana in the picture is her hand and the left side of her dress. “We told her to move closer to Leo in the picture.”

“She looks like she’s in love,” Gabriel teases, looking at the first picture.

Leo laughs. “Can you blame her?”

“Actually, no,” Gabriel says shyly.

“I think Leo’s parents always thought they would wind up together,” I tell them.

“Grandma, do you think Mom is disappointed?” Leo asks me, honestly. I look at his hand, and he’s squeezing Gabriel’s hand.

I sigh. “It’s like everything with your mom, Leonardo. It’s going to take her time. She’ll get there.”

 

******

Leo makes his way to my house on Wednesday, just like most Wednesdays before.

“Where’s Gabriel?” I ask.

“He had to make up a geometry quiz. He’ll be here when he’s done.”

It starts raining and about 15 minutes later, Gabriel comes to the door, drenched from riding his bike through another recent downpour. “Let me take your shirt,” I say, inviting him in. “You can have one a spare one of Leo’s while I put yours in the dryer.”

I throw Gabriel’s shirt into the dryer, and go find a spare of Leo’s, and grab a towel from the linen closet. When I come back, shirt and towel in hand, Leo isn’t wearing a shirt, and he’s given Gabriel his. His hands are on Gabriel’s shoulders, and they’re kissing.

“Leo?”

He’s shocked, but when he pulls away, Gabriel is giggling. “What? His lips were cold too!”

“Fair enough,” I say, holding the towel and shirt out for Gabriel. “You might want to let Leo put on the other one.

“Thanks,” he says, smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More on this one. It was hard to headcanon Laura, I'm not the biggest fan. If anyone has ideas for 3, let me know. This feels like a good end to me, but if you have suggestions, I'll always take them. Please follow me on ClassicalLeo on tumblr!

**Author's Note:**

> So far this has been my favorite piece of my own. If you're interested in more, I probably have a chapter or two I could do. I really love Maria, she's by far my favorite "adult" in the movie, and I always had her in headcanon being VERY accepting of Leo and Gabriel's relationship.


End file.
